Alyna Reading addresses the asymmetrical conditions under which legal norms were globalised through the lens of a 19th-century land purchase by European missionaries in British colonial West Africa. She explores how conflicting conceptions of property rights, land use, and metaphysics clashed and remained effectively unresolved as land passed from the community of Begoro to the Basel Mission. Swiss and South German pietism, British legal norms, and Akan customs of land tenure were negotiated and brought into unequal conversation.

Aurélie Salamin studies the treatment of former child soldiers. Even though a plethora of international treaties proscribe the recruitment and deployment of children in armed conflicts, this remains an ongoing practice with long-term consequences. The paper problematizes the standard narratives on children used in armed conflicts, which tend to typologize them as helpless victims, heroic survivors, or violent perpetrators. But these stereotypical typologies can hinder the reintegration of former child soldiers into society. International law demands that the ‘best interest’ of children be promoted, but what is in the ‘best interest’ of former child soldiers?

Finally, Emanuel Sebastian De Seta discusses the strategic options of small countries in an increasingly adverse geopolitical and economic climate. His paper outlines a conceptual framework for grand strategies open to small states facing an eroding global liberal order and intensifying great power competition. To apply these ideas to the practice of statecraft, De Seta analyses Switzerland’s Free Trade Agreement with China in the context of global Sino-American competition and interprets it as an insurance policy aimed at ensuring access to the Chinese market without compromising relations with the United States and the European Union.

About the contributors and editors

The authors completed the MA European Global Studies at the Institute for European Global Studies. Alyna Reading is currently undertaking a doctorate in Contemporary History at the University of Fribourg after completing her internship at the State Archives of Lucerne. After graduation, Aurélie Salamin spent six months at the Embassy of Switzerland in Berlin. Emanuel Sebastian De Seta worked at the Embassy of Switzerland in Nairobi und is currently studying in Riga.

The issue of the e-journal has been edited by Paul Blickle, Academic Staff at the Institute of European Global Studies, under guidance of Prof. Dr. Corey Ross, Director of the Institute for European Global Studies.

About the E-Journal

Global Europe – Basel Papers on Europe in a Global Perspective is an academic e-journal showcasing the excellent research of graduates as well as other young and senior scholars interested in analyzing Europe and the EU in a global context.

The journal is published up to one issue per year. The publications are available as PDF-files via the open access platform of the University Library Basel as well as in the e-journal's archive on this site. In addition, readers can subscribe to it by sending an e-mail to europa@unibas.ch.